Hourglasses
by MidnightMemory2939
Summary: Danny wakes up one morning with a strange glowing scar over his eye. Suspecting something, he goes to Clockwork for answers. But the truth isn't exactly what he was expecting - or wanted to hear. NO PP; T for some language and touchy subjects; DxS is at canon level.
1. Chapter 1

This fic is a test. I'm not sure how it's going to end or where it's gonna go, but you know what, I like winging things. Please review, and be honest on how I can improve!  
**Disclaimer: If I owned Danny Phantom, I wouldn't be writing stories on fanfiction sites, now now, would I?**

* * *

It wasn't like the coal-haired seventeen year-old was _looking_ for trouble. He was just like a magnet of sorts; if he was around, something was _bound_ to happen. And today was another one of those days...it was one of those days where you had some kind of instinctive feeling that it'd be different from normal. Although Daniel Fenton's life was far from what most people, even the citizens of Amity Park, would call "normal".

Ever since the portal accident three years ago, his life had been flipped upside down. In the past three years, he and his best friends, Sam and Tucker. had changed quite a lot. Danny had abandoned his traditional white and red shirt for a gray one with a small green DP insignia on the left side of his chest. Each member of Team Phantom would wear the emblem somewhere, no matter what size. He stuck with his jeans and red tennis shoes, however. He also wore a thin white long-sleeved shirt underneath his gray one, as his arms had developed scars not even supernatural healing could completely fix.

Tucker still had his signature red hat, though he wore a shirt that was about the same color as his green cargo shorts, which he'd swapped for khakis, and kept his brown boots. He'd also gotten new glasses after cracking the lens on his old ones. They looked the same, except the rims were a deep navy blue. His "mark", as they called it, was a gold-colored clip Sam had gotten for him to put on his belt.

Sam herself had gotten a few purple highlights in her hair, and wore deep, almost blood red lipstick instead of lavender. She wore a black shirt with red trimmed sleeves, and a black skirt with a gray raven silhouette in the corner. She kept her combat boots however, in fact, they seemed a bit more painful than before, and she wouldn't hesitate to show them if they needed. She'd also gotten a purple DP insignia etched into the band on her left wrist. She looked as amazing as ever, and Danny could feel himself liking her as a bit more than a friend, though he kept it to himself.

It was funny how much you could change in the span of three or four years.

"Hurry up, Danny! If you take much longer, you'll be late for school!" Danny's father called from downstairs. The boy was already dressed, but still needed to brush his teeth before taking off.

"Huh?" Apparently, the mirror was cracked. Danny's reflection showed a black line under his right eye. But when he moved, the line moved with him. The bathroom mirror was definitely not cracked. He ran his finger over the mark. Granted, it was small, but it was still easily visible. It was strange, yes, but he'd have to talk to Sam and Tucker about it at school. Wait, school! He quickly finished brushing his teeth, then rushed downstairs, grabbing his booksack, and made a beeline for the door.

* * *

"So, you're telling me is that you just woke up this morning with that?" Sam asked, observing the mark. It was quite strange, in fact. It wasn't a scar, though it resembled one a bit. It was flat, so it wasn't a scab either. It was almost like a tattoo.

"Dude, if you look from the right angle..." Tucker squinted, "It sort of looks like it's glowing..."

"What?! Look, Tucker, we've known you were crazy since you started naming your PDAs," Danny started, eyeing Tucker as he whispered something along the lines of 'hush my baby, he didn't mean that' to his PDA. "But this? I think your glasses are reflecting the light weird or something. It's not glowing." The halfa stated. Sam reached out her hand to touch it, but quickly learned that that was a bad idea.

"Ouch! Danny, that thing...it shocked me!" The goth almost yipped, pulling back her hand and shaking it frantically. Danny narrowed his eyes. He wanted someone to pop out from behind the corner and yell 'April Fools!', even though it was near the end of September.

"Wait, really? Let me see..." Tucker extended his palm out to touch it.

"Tucker, that's probably-"

"Yoww!" Tucker reacted similarly to Sam, except he freaked out a bit more.

"...not a good idea. Look, I have no idea what this thing is, but I don't think it's normal." Of course, Danny knew his life was probably the polar opposite of normal, but this was still strange, even on that level. Tucker muttered something like 'you're not normal', but an angry flash of green from Danny's eyes stopped him mid-sentence.

"I think we should just ignore it for now. It'll probably go away later, but-" Sam was cut short by the bell. "Agh! I forgot we had Science! Come on, we don't need another tardy. See you at lunch, Tuck!" She grabbed Danny's hand and the two of them rushed to the classroom.

"Samantha and Daniel, do either of you have an explanation for being late?" Mr. Jones asked, his brown eyes seemingly staring into their souls.

"N-no sir..." Danny said. There was something about their physics teacher that unnerved Danny. Maybe it was his harsh tone of voice; Lancer's voice was angelic compared to him.

"Then take a seat. We've wasted enough time already." The two of them took their seats, waiting for the lesson. "Today, class, thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Fenton's donation of excess ectoplasm, we will be studying it's effects when mixed with common substances such as water. Everyone get in groups of two." Sam and Danny looked straight at each other, and it was already done. Danny got a tube of ectoplasm, as did one of each member from every group. Mr. Jones had handed out some cups of warm water, as well as rubbing alcohol and...something that looked like orange juice?

"Let's just get the water one over with." Danny sighed, and Sam nodded. He put a few drops of ectoplasm into the cup of water, and it fizzled for a moment before causing a minor explosion in Danny's face. Sort of like with Coke and mentos, but on a much smaller scale. He could hear Dash and Kwan snickering behind him. He whipped his head around, and immediately they stopped laughing and just kind of...well..._stared_.

"Uhh, Danny, you might wanna take a look at this..." Sam reached into her bag and pulled out the beauty mirror her parents forced her to bring. She opened it, and Danny's eyes widened.

"What? No no no...no..." He whispered the last one. The marking from earlier had grown longer somehow, and made a zig-zag pattern across his right eye. It was glowing faintly, blue tinted at the top and green near the bottom. It almost looked like a certain scar on a face he'd come to know very well.

"Clockwork."


	2. Chapter 2

Woo! I'm back! Sorry about the lack of updates, but I think I may have a somewhat regular schedule back up...all in due time, I suppose. You guys are probably tired of hearing my rambling, but before you go I'd like to give a shoutout of the people who reviewed the first chapter! Here's a thanks to DB-KT, dannifentonphantom2007, July Storm, Kimera20, IcyGhostLlama, Ella Le Hissy, 9foxgrl, YamiYugiYuki, LunagaleMaster, tsukinopen, i love pinn, FallingNarwhals, DPN2012, Adamantium Dragoness, and Pedriza! Phew, that's a lot of people for one chapter...and now, presenting Hourglasses: Chapter Two!  
**Come on people, do I look like Butch Hartman to you?!**

* * *

Sometimes, it's the smallest decisions that can change your life forever.  
-Keri Russel

* * *

Danny gulped. The jocks were standing there, just gaping at the multicolored streak on the right side of his face. To be fair, it was stare-worthy, but he hated being stared at when he wasn't Danny Phantom.

"Fentonio...what the hell is that?" Dash asked, quickly scrambling to his senses. "More like Freak-tonio..." He smirked.

"Oh, it's just, umm...a glowing tattoo?" The halfa offered. Some people seemed to buy it, but Mr. Jones raised an eyebrow, sighing to no one in particular. A good portion of the other students still looked skeptical. At last, the universe decided that it had had enough of torturing the seventeen year old boy, at least for the time being. The bell rung, signaling it was time for his next class.

* * *

As the trio headed home after a stress-filled school days, Danny continued freaking out. "I was getting stares throughout most of my classes! And not everyone bought the 'glowing tattoo' thing...what am I gonna tell mom and dad?" He asked, panic fluttering through his eyes.

"When we get to your house, we can probably find something to cover it up with. I'm sure Jazz has _some_ makeup that'd match your skin tone." Tucker suggested. "Besides, it's not as noticeable as it was during lunch. If you're lucky, your parents won't even notice it."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Maybe I was just overreacting..." Danny reassured himself. "It was probably something in the ectoplasm we were given in class."

"Danny, don't you think you're letting this all go to easily?" Sam asked. "No one else's ectoplasm sample exploded, at least not like that."

"Relax. Know what, I'll just go see Clockwork after this. You'll see, we were all just making a big fuss over nothing." Danny smiled, though he couldn't shake the feeling that he was wrong. He could see the glowing 'FentonWorks' sign. He picked up his pace, and so did Tucker and Sam.  
Danny reached into his booksack pocket and pulled out the house key, unlocking the door. "Mom and dad aren't going to be home until late tonight. They said they were going to some convention in the square...or something. Jazz is with Spike, but she'll be back in two hours or so. I'll have plenty of time."

"If you need anything call us! My mom says we're having guests tonight, and as much as I don't want to go..." Sam made a face. "She'll ground me if I don't. I'll see you at school tomorrow!" Sam called out, already turning to go to her house.

"I've gotta go too. I promised Elise I'd be home early tonight." Tucker said. "Seriously though, go easy. I don't like that..._thingy_ on your face." Tucker warned, before also turning tail on the patrol-scooter they used.

After waving goodbye, he went inside. It was strangely warm, but he shrugged it off. After dropping his booksack off in his room, he went downstairs into the lab. Taking a breath, he searched inside for the icy warmth deep inside his body. He found it, drawing it out. He felt the familiar rings slide over him, turning his ebony hair into a shade whiter than snow, and leaving his baby blue eyes a sharp yet radioactive green. His shirt and jeans had vanished, leaving the famous, or infamous, depending on who you asked, Danny Phantom.

His costume had gone through some changes at time went by as well. He wore a green belt which held his thermos. One of the more notable changes was the cape. It was white on the outside, and black on the inside. Tucker had broke into a laughing fit the first time he saw it, and kept remarking on how he looked like Super Danny. The cape was held in place in the front by a green teardrop-shaped stone. His hair had grown a bit longer, and as much as he hated to admit it, in ghost form, his canines had gotten a little longer than normal. It reminded him of...well, _him,_ but there wasn't much he could do about it. His boots reached a little higher, and had green trim at the top, and his gloves were green trimmed as well.

Danny looked down at the connecter. Gone was the green charm, and it was replaced with an ectoplasm-green gear. "Probably Clockwork's way of telling me to hurry up." He said to himself. Over time, Clockwork had become like his ghostly guardian. Though he spoke in riddles, he was great for advice as long as you could understand what he was saying. It was already four'o'clock, he had to get going. He floated off of the ground, and zoomed into the portal.

* * *

The scar on Phantom's face seemed to react to the stray ectoplasm of the Ghost Zone. It had flared up again, its colors ranging from a soft blue to the radioactive green of his eyes. He'd only been in the Zone for about 15 minutes when his ghost sense activated, resulting in an icy blue wisp from his mouth. He could hear a voice behind him. "Greetings, whelp."

Phantom turned around, and was met with none other than Skulker. "Oh come on, Skulker. I kicked your butt yesterday, and yet you still come back for more? When do you ever stop?!" He spat. Skulker had actually gotten his pretty good yesterday with a surprise attack, though in the end he'd won. But instead of shooting him, Skulker looked at Danny curiously. "What?" He raised an eyebrow. The hunter said nothing, and just observed the scar across the half's face. Skulker's own face twisted into a scowl.

"Oh, come on! I knew I should've gone harder on you yesterday! Now I can't hunt my prey..."

"Erm...what?" Phantom asked, eying his self-proclaimed hunter.

"Oh, never mind. Go ask your mentor, advisor, crazed-up ghost friend of yours..." Skulker floated away, glaring daggers into Phantom's eyes as he did so.

_Well, that was weird...Clockwork owes me one hell of an explanation. _Phantom mused. This wasn't going to go down easily, was it? Skulker never just left him alone, _ever_. It just wasn't like him. And Danny was going to put an end to all of the insanity that had been today. Clockwork's tower was only ten or so minutes away, and he had some questions.

* * *

Heh heh, sorry if it seems rushed. I know it's kinda short, but these filler chapters are building up to something that's gonna be revealed next chapter. You'll slap yourself for not realizing the direction this story was going in earlier, and I'll just be laughing maniacally, while pulling the cookies out of the oven. If you see it coming, then good for you. You can have one of the cookies. Though I promise I'm gonna take this genre in a new direction. No cliche's to be found here! (And no, that's not a challenge to see if you can stop any, so please don't...)


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